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Showing 1401 - 1420 of 3250 items
By Libby Clegg. 2022
Lying at the very heart of Libby Clegg's life and achievements is the relationship with her Labrador Retriever cross guide…
dog, Hatti. A relationship primarily based on trust, with a healthy dose of respect and adoration.Libby Clegg is one of the UK's most popular, recognisable and respected Paralympic athletes, having won ten major gold medals, including two at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games. As a sprinter who has only peripheral vision in her left eye, Libby runs with a guide runner while wearing a blindfold and, in 2021, she will defend her 100m and 200m titles at the Tokyo Paralympics.Libby is also well-known to the public from her ground-breaking appearance in Dancing on Ice where, in addition to her being the first registered blind person ever appear on the show, she managed to reach the final, winning her millions of new fans and making her a national hero all over again.From the moment Libby wakes up until the moment she goes to bed, Hatti will either be lying at her feet, sitting by her side or guiding Libby to wherever she needs to be. Hatti is there for Libby through both the highs and the lows and they have shared countless adventures together, from spending the day in the Royal Box at Wimbledon where Hatti overdid it on strawberries and cream to Libby trying to overcome a severe bout depression after the Rio Paralympic Games.Theirs is a partnership that works on every single level and, while its circumstances may be unique, its story will be reassuring and familiar to any dog lover. Libby and Hatti are a devoted couple helping each other through life.By Peter Schmeichel. 2021
'Why me? How could a boy from a Copenhagen tower block say I want to be a champion with Manchester…
United and Denmark and make it happen?'Peter Schmeichel is a giant of football, who won more Premier League titles (five) than any player in his position and captained Manchester United in the incomparable, last-gasp Treble-clinching win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final. 'I don't believe a better goalkeeper played the game,' Sir Alex Ferguson said. One: My Autobiography is Schmeichel's story.In it, he takes us inside the remarkable, winning environment of a club that transformed football during the 1990s, and on to the pitch on that crazy, breathless night in Barcelona in 1999. From Ferguson's unique gifts to Eric Cantona's unique personality, he delivers a close-up and insightful portrait of United's golden era.However, One: My Autobiography goes way beyond the pitch.Schmeichel has an incredible family story to tell, starting with his father, Antoni, a brilliant Polish jazz musician who battled demons and for years kept a momentous secret from those around him. And he explores what he has been able to pass on to his own son, Kasper - himself a Premier League-winning goalkeeper and number one in the Danish national side.Peter's life after football, seldom straightforward, is described with astonishing candour. One: My Autobiography is about football, origins, journeys and legacy.By Mark Clattenburg. 2021
The outspoken and hard-hitting autobiography of one of the most highly-rated, recognisable and controversial football referees of modern times.Mark Clattenburg…
found himself in the centre circle, whistle in hand, at the start of 450 Premier League matches during a highly eventful 13-year career in football's top flight. He has shaken hands with, issued red and yellow cards to, and been sworn at by hundreds of players. He has been screamed at and shared jokes with dozens and dozens of managers. And he's felt the wrath of thousands upon thousands of irate fans.His autobiography is the ultimate guide to what it's really like to be in the referee's spotlight. It offers numerous intriguing insights into the daily trials and tribulations, the acute stresses and strains, of a top-flight referee. Clattenburg takes the reader into the referee's room, the players' tunnel and out on the pitch to experience precisely what a referee goes through on match day.By Peter Schmeichel. 2021
'Why me? How could a boy from a Copenhagen tower block say I want to be a champion with Manchester…
United and Denmark and make it happen?'Peter Schmeichel is a giant of football, who won more Premier League titles (five) than any player in his position and captained Manchester United in the incomparable, last-gasp Treble-clinching win over Bayern Munich in the 1999 Champions League final. 'I don't believe a better goalkeeper played the game,' Sir Alex Ferguson said. One: My Autobiography is Schmeichel's story.In it, he takes us inside the remarkable, winning environment of a club that transformed football during the 1990s, and on to the pitch on that crazy, breathless night in Barcelona in 1999. From Ferguson's unique gifts to Eric Cantona's unique personality, he delivers a close-up and insightful portrait of United's golden era.However, One: My Autobiography goes way beyond the pitch.Schmeichel has an incredible family story to tell, starting with his father, Antoni, a brilliant Polish jazz musician who battled demons and for years kept a momentous secret from those around him. And he explores what he has been able to pass on to his own son, Kasper - himself a Premier League-winning goalkeeper and number one in the Danish national side.Peter's life after football, seldom straightforward, is described with astonishing candour. One: My Autobiography is about football, origins, journeys and legacy.By Troy Deeney. 2021
***'Footie book of the year.' - The SunTROY DEENEY is best known as Watford FC's captain and a thorn in…
Arsenal's side. But behind the successful and gritty football persona is a remarkable story of resilience.In this brutally honest and inspirational memoir, Troy shares what it was like to grow up on Europe's largest council estate, where his mum worked three jobs and his father, a notorious drug dealer, was frequently in and out of prison.He shares stories of self-sabotage, from simply not turning up to Aston Villa's football trials as a teenager, playing while drunk to being imprisoned for affray at the height of his career.But Troy never gave up, even when it meant playing professional football with an ankle tag. He went on to score 20+ goals in three successive seasons and became the Club Captain, an FA Cup finalist, promotion winner and Watford's record scorer. He also became an outspoken player advocate and - in an age of bland footballer interviews - is a sought after voice on football and footballers today.Engaging, endearing and insightful, this book is where Troy comes to terms with his turbulent past.By Mark Clattenburg. 2021
The outspoken and hard-hitting autobiography of one of the most highly-rated, recognisable and controversial football referees of modern times.Mark Clattenburg…
found himself in the centre circle, whistle in hand, at the start of 450 Premier League matches during a highly eventful 13-year career in football's top flight. He has shaken hands with, issued red and yellow cards to, and been sworn at by hundreds of players. He has been screamed at and shared jokes with dozens and dozens of managers. And he's felt the wrath of thousands upon thousands of irate fans.His autobiography is the ultimate guide to what it's really like to be in the referee's spotlight. It offers numerous intriguing insights into the daily trials and tribulations, the acute stresses and strains, of a top-flight referee. Clattenburg takes the reader into the referee's room, the players' tunnel and out on the pitch to experience precisely what a referee goes through on match day.By Jonah Winter. 2009
In this striking picture book biography, an old-timer tells us what made Sandy Koufax so amazing. We learn that the…
beginning of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers was rocky, that he was shy with his teammates, and experienced discrimination as one of the only Jews in the game. We hear that he actually quit, only to return the next season-- different-- firing one rocket after another over the plate. We watch him refuse to play in the 1965 World Series because it is a Jewish high holy day. And we see him in pain because of an overused left arm, eventually retiring at the peak of his career. Finally, we are told that people are still "scratchin' their heads over Sandy," who remains a modest hero and a mystery to this day. Accompanied by sidebars filled with statistics, here's a book sure to delight budding baseball fans.By Hayley Wickenheiser. 2021
The greatest women&’s hockey player of all time, Hayley Wickenheiser shares the lessons that won her four Olympic gold medals,…
and hard-earned wisdom distilled from moments when she fell short. There is no one in the world like Hayley Wickenheiser. 13 World Championship appearances. 6 Olympic Games. Hockey Hall of Famer. All while raising a child, earning multiple university degrees, and not benefiting from the financial stability male professional athletes have. She gave the game everything she had—now, Hayley shares what the game gave her. From motherhood to pro leagues to her new career in medicine, Hayley shares the hard-won lessons she learned on and off the ice that helped her not only have a record-breaking hockey career but craft a life filled with joy, growth, and challenges. In her own words, Hayley shares how she rose from the backyard pond and changing in boiler rooms (because girls' dressing rooms didn&’t exist) to Olympic MVP (twice). How becoming a parent made her a better athlete. How she learned to thrive under monumental pressure. But she doesn&’t stop at revealing the pillars to her tremendous success—Hayley delves into her immense failures and how she grew from them. Like Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, and Abby Wambach before her, Hayley shares her wisdom through personal stories of triumph, relentlessness, and more than a couple confrontations. Told with humour, compassion, and steadfast optimism, Hayley&’s practical advice, coaching, and invaluable perspective inspires readers to never accept &“that&’s not the way we do things&” or &“that hasn&’t been done before&” as limitations. An empowering and pragmatic guide, Hayley encourages readers to not follow in her footsteps, but to carve their own ice.By Alan Duff, Sonny Bill Williams. 2021
Sonny Bill Williams (SBW) is a once in a hundred-year athlete with immense sporting talent in Rugby League, Rugby Union…
and Boxing. Sonny Bill has built an incredible career and sporting reputation across the globe. His athleticism has taken him from inner-city Auckland, where he grew up, to the highest sporting moments in Twickenham, Eden Park and Sydney's Olympic Stadium. But there is so much more to Sonny Bill Williams' life and journey than his on-field and in-the-ring triumphs. Sonny Bill's love of family, his faith, his skill and performance throughout his unparalleled sporting career, his ability to unite a team under pressure, his grace in owning his mistakes, the challenges of leaving home as a young man and dealing with a negative culture and the temptations that followed, and his courage in speaking out for the vulnerable and calling out injustice are all aspects of an inspiring life story.Sonny Bill Williams was the first Muslim to play for the All Blacks. Driven by a fierce moral compass, Sonny Bill Williams thoughtfully and authentically uses his standing and platform as both a UNICEF Ambassador and an elite sportsperson to speak out on political issues that confront the world today and to benefit those struggling in life. He is a dedicated family man, devoted to his faith, committed to his teammates, respectful of his fans and aware that the path he has taken can inspire and empower others. Working with Alan Duff, award-winning author of Once Were Warriors, this will be the must-read autobiography of the year.By John Barnes. 2021
An eloquent and thought-provoking book on racism and prejudice by the Liverpool and England football legend John Barnes.John Barnes spent…
the first dozen years of his life in Jamaica before moving to the UK with his family in 1975. Six years later he was a professional footballer, distinguishing himself for Watford, Liverpool and England, and in the process becoming this country's most prominent black player.Barnes is now an articulate and captivating social commentator on a broad range of issues, and in The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism he tackles head-on the issues surrounding prejudice with his trademark intelligence and authority.By vividly evoking his personal experiences, and holding a mirror to this country's past, present and future, Barnes provides a powerful and moving testimony. The Uncomfortable Truth About Racism will help to inform and advance the global conversation around society's ongoing battle with the awful stain of prejudice.By Aidan O'Mahony. 2021
Aidan O'Mahony was at peak physical fitness and making his mark on the Kerry Senior Football team when he made…
the devastating choice to walk away from it all.Now, in his powerfully honest memoir, Aidan looks at the events leading up to this moment: the extreme pressure he put himself under as he strove for maximum physical strength, struggling with the asthma that had plagued him since childhood; the on-pitch altercation that took a toll on his mental health; the controversy over a failed drug test and the intense media scrutiny he found himself facing.And he tells of how, in the weeks that followed him quitting the game, he made a decision which would ultimately change everything.As Aidan began to discover who he was and what was important to him, he returned to football with the same dedication and commitment he'd always had - but with a new mindset. He went on to achieve Championship and personal highs including taking part in and winning RTE's Dancing with the Stars.Unbroken is an account of the discipline it takes to be a part of one of the country's most successful Gaelic football teams. It is also a story of managing external and internal expectations and pressure, and of the importance of knowing when to ask for help.By Aidan O'Mahony. 2021
Aidan O'Mahony was at peak physical fitness and making his mark on the Kerry Senior Football team when he made…
the devastating choice to walk away from it all.Now, in his powerfully honest memoir, Aidan looks at the events leading up to this moment: the extreme pressure he put himself under as he strove for maximum physical strength, struggling with the asthma that had plagued him since childhood; the on-pitch altercation that took a toll on his mental health; the controversy over a failed drug test and the intense media scrutiny he found himself facing.And he tells of how, in the weeks that followed him quitting the game, he made a decision which would ultimately change everything.As Aidan began to discover who he was and what was important to him, he returned to football with the same dedication and commitment he'd always had - but with a new mindset. He went on to achieve Championship and personal highs including taking part in and winning RTE's Dancing with the Stars.Unbroken is an account of the discipline it takes to be a part of one of the country's most successful Gaelic football teams. It is also a story of managing external and internal expectations and pressure, and of the importance of knowing when to ask for help.By Paris Fury. 2021
Gypsy Queen to the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury's wife Paris reveals the magical highs and epic lows of life with…
the Heavyweight Boxing World Champion, as she shares their life story and what keeps them strong through the good times - and the bad.Paris Fury is Tyson's rock, the wife he thanks for all his success. Both from Traveller families, she married him at 19 and is hands-on mother to their five children, as well as at his side through every fight. Always glamorous, strong, grounded, and her own woman. When Tyson's struggles with depression, OCD and alcohol have threatened to overwhelm them, she has held them together, and helped to see Tyson through to the greatest boxing victories.With all her warmth, humour and honesty, she tells her story - from her Traveller childhood, falling in love, making a home and a family, to coming through Tyson's darkest moments. She vividly describes the anguish of their worst times, and what it's like to be at the ringside. And she shows what it takes to balance the fame, the fans and all the sporting pressures alongside everyday family life.By Sonny Bill Williams. 2021
__________Available for pre-order: the extraordinary and revealing autobiography of one of rugby's most entertaining and complicated figures'I lived for winter…
Saturdays and played footy at lunchtime and after school, while at home I passed, kicked, tackled and discussed the game endlessly with my big bro. I ignored bad weather; I just wanted to play. When there weren't enough numbers to make up teams, a few of us kids would still get together and practice. That's where my offloads were born.'__________As a shy part-Samoan boy growing up in the suburbs of Auckland, Sonny Bill Williams thought about footy constantly. For him, the dream of playing professional NRL was so big that nothing else ever came close.Fast forward to 2004, and eighteen-year-old Sonny Bill's dream was coming true. Making his first-grade debut for the Canterbury Bulldogs, he would become an integral part of their premiership-winning team and be named Rookie of the Year.The league culture was train hard, play hard and then party hard. Alcohol, drugs, women - it was a slippery slope for a naïve teen looking to find his place. Too soon, the joy of winning a premiership gave way to an emptiness that not even footy could fix. Struggling, Sonny made a decision that for many was unforgivable. He walked out on the Bulldogs and flew to France. Scathing headlines, subpoenas and threatened lawsuits followed. But so too would come the realisation that he couldn't run from the man in the mirror.In this powerful, open and honest memoir, Sonny Bill shares the triumphs and missteps of his extraordinary sporting life and reveals how faith and family have made him the man he is today.__________Sonny Bill Williams is a once in a generation athlete - a player with immense sporting talent in rugby league, rugby union and boxing. In his remarkable career, he has won World Cups with the All Blacks in 2011 and 2015 and helped the Kiwis reach the 2013 final of the rugby league equivalent.Compelling and searingly honest, You Can't Stop the Sun from Shining is essential reading for any sports fan.By Chris Epting Shirley Babashoff. 2016
In her extraordinary swimming career, Shirley Babashoff set thirty-nine national records and eleven world records. Prior to the 1990s, she…
was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer in the world. Heading into the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Babashoff was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and followed closely by the media. Hopes were high that she would become “the female Mark Spitz.” All of that changed once Babashoff questioned the shocking masculinity of the swimmers on the East German women’s team. Once celebrated as America’s golden girl, Babashoff was accused of poor sportsmanship and vilified by the press with a new nickname: “Surly Shirley.” Making Waves displays the remarkable strength and resilience that made Babashoff such a dynamic champion. From her difficult childhood and beginnings as a determined young athlete growing up in Southern California in the 1960s, through her triumphs as the greatest female amateur swimmer in the world, Babashoff tells her story in the same unflinching manner that made her both the most dominant female swimmer of her time and one of the most controversial athletes in Olympic history.By Karina Manta. 2021
An insightful memoir from a figure skating champion about her life as a bisexual professional athlete, perfect for readers of…
Fierce by Aly Raisman and Forward by Abby Wambach.Karina Manta has had a busy few years: Not only did she capture the hearts of many with her fan-favorite performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she also became the first female figure skater on Team USA to come out as queer. Her Modern Love essay "I Can't Hate My Body if I Love Hers" was published in the New York Times, and then she joined the circus--Cirque du Soleil's on-ice show, AXEL.Karina's memoir covers these experiences and much more. Attending a high school with 4,000 students, you'd expect to know more than two openly gay students, but Karina didn't meet an out-lesbian until she was nearly seventeen--let alone any other kind of queer woman. But this isn't just a story about her queerness. It's also a story about her struggle with body image in a sport that prizes delicate femininity. It's a story about panic attacks, and first crushes, and all the crushes that followed, and it's a story about growing up, feeling different than everybody around her and then realizing that everyone else felt different too.By Bernie Saunders, Barry Meisel. 1951
Shut Out is a hockey love story. But it’s a love that was unrequited. Bernie Saunders had a passion for hockey.…
His prodigious talent was on display at all levels. But because he was Black, he was stymied at every turn and experienced nothing but taunting from opponents, spectators, coaches and even his own teammates. Despite this malevolence, Saunders continued to play, adopting a style akin to that of the historic house slave: serve but remain invisible. Signed by the Quebec Nordiques, he played with them for two years, but spent most of his career playing collegiately at Western Michigan University and in the minor leagues in Canada and the US. In the end, it was all too much for Saunders. Dogged and overwhelmed by racism, he finally left hockey to work in the corporate sector.This is a memoir about professional hockey by a player who had the potential to become a star but was blocked at almost every opportunity because of his race. In spite of this, Shut Out is a hopeful and uplifting book about facing adversity, overcoming it and moving ahead. Woven throughout the book is Saunders’s love of his family, especially his brother, John, who died at age sixty-one. Now retired, Bernie Saunders is still sought out by the hockey community for his observations and advice.By Eric Allen Hall. 2014
The first scholarly biography of one of the most famous athletes of our time shows how Ashe worked for civil…
rights while playing a country-club sport in a white man’s world.Winner of the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title of the Choice ACRLArthur Ashe explains how this iconic African American tennis player overcame racial and class barriers to reach the top of the tennis world in the 1960s and 1970s. But more important, it follows Ashe’s evolution as an activist who had to contend with the shift from civil rights to Black Power. Off the court, and in the arena of international politics, Ashe positioned himself at the center of the black freedom movement, negotiating the poles of black nationalism and assimilation into white society. Fiercely independent and protective of his public image, he navigated the thin line between conservatives and liberals, reactionaries and radicals, the sports establishment and the black cause.Eric Allen Hall’s work examines Ashe’s life as a struggle against adversity but also a negotiation between the comforts—perhaps requirements—of tennis-star status and the felt obligation to protest the discriminatory barriers the white world constructed to keep black people "in their place."Drawing on coverage of Ashe’s athletic career and social activism in domestic and international publications, archives including the Ashe Papers, and a variety of published memoirs and interviews, Hall has created an intimate, nuanced portrait of a great athlete who stood at the crossroads of sports and equal justice.By John Irving. 1996
The Imaginary Girlfriend is a candid memoir of the writers and wrestlers who played a role in John Irving's development…
as a novelist and as a wrestler. It also portrays a father's dedication—Irving coached his two sons to championship titles. It is an illuminating, concise work, a literary treasure.By Paris Fury. 2021
Gypsy Queen to the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury's wife Paris reveals the magical highs and epic lows of life with…
the Heavyweight Boxing World Champion, as she shares their life story and what keeps them strong through the good times - and the bad.Paris Fury is Tyson's rock, the wife he thanks for all his success. Both from Traveller families, she married him at 19 and is hands-on mother to their six children, as well as at his side through every fight. Always glamorous, strong, grounded, and her own woman. When Tyson's struggles with depression, OCD and alcohol have threatened to overwhelm them, she has held them together, and helped to see Tyson through to the greatest boxing victories.With all her warmth, humour and honesty, she tells her story - from her Traveller childhood, falling in love, making a home and a family, to coming through Tyson's darkest moments. She vividly describes the anguish of their worst times, and what it's like to be at the ringside. And she shows what it takes to balance the fame, the fans and all the sporting pressures alongside everyday family life.